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Photo by Bob Pennell Jean Gripner clears leaves Saturday from in front of her Groveland Avenue home. The area is under consideration for a much-debated traffic bypass. Residents have organized against the idea, and plan to propose alternatives. Valuable asset for Medford Neighbors sign anti-arterial petition By PETER WONG Tekla Delaney has lived there barely three months. Larry and Susan Hirshman have lived there three years. Pat Oldenburg and Bon Dysart have lived there more than three decades. They all say their older neighborhood in southeast Medford will be ruined if Groveland Avenue becomes part of a proposed north-south arterial to relieve traffic congestion near the south Medford interchange with Interstate 5. Armed with almost 700 signatures in hand, they also have organized to persuade officials to drop that proposal before it ever reaches the City Council, a citizens advisory committee or a community team of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "When you widen the street, there will be more cars and faster speeds, and you will deter alternative forms of transportation," said Oldenburg, who's lived on Groveland Avenue for 33 years. "We would lose people enjoying the street in the ways they do now. "People who moved here recently came here for the same reasons we did. We love the quiet street, large yards, parks and schools within walking distance. I feel that loading the street with traffic will lead to the deterioration of the neighborhood and waste a valuable asset for Medford." Close to the neighborhood are Bear Creek Park and Hoover Elementary School. Under the proposal, one of seven under consideration, Ellendale Drive would be extended north -- either through or around Siskiyou Memorial Park -- to link up with Groveland Avenue. The options would be narrowed to three before public hearings begin. Larry and Susan Hirshman lived in Ashland six years before they bought a house three years ago at the north end of Groveland Avenue on East Main Street. "When I get up on Saturdays, I will walk all the way down Groveland, across Dellwood Avenue and up Modoc Avenue back to Main," he said. "It's just a great place to be. You see lots of people walking, jogging, bicycling -- and everybody is friendly. "When I was in college, I drove a cab in New York. So I understand that people want to get places faster. That is a natural feeling. But there are better routes to do it than to go through a residential neighborhood. So why should you tear up a neighborhood to get some place two minutes faster?" Tekla Delaney was barely settled in her home on Groveland Avenue when she read about the proposal for a north-south arterial incorporating Groveland. She and her husband were concerned about moving to Medford four years ago. They first came to Lenora Drive. "I'd never been on the east side before, but when I saw it, I said it was nice and I could live here," she said. "We moved here and decided we wanted to get into this neighborhood, which we had seen when we first came down from Central Oregon. So we bought here -- and then we found out about this road. "I think new developments are great for some people, but for us, this is where it is at. It sickens me to think they are going to take it away." Bon Dysart, who lives on Dellwood Avenue two houses east of Groveland, has been an unofficial leader in organizing opposition. He and many of the neighbors say they recognize there is serious traffic congestion, though not at the level found in bigger cities, and that alternatives should be explored to help relieve it. "It has amazed me how this group of people have come together," he said. "There is a sense of community taking action that I would not have predicted before this happened. This has given us an opportunity to get to know more of our neighbors -- but not in the greatest way." Even the possibility of a road extension slicing through Siskiyou Memorial Park upsets Kristy Miles-Dysart, whose great-grandparents founded the cemetery almost 70 years ago and whose grandparents ran it until about 20 years ago. "It would be like going through an Indian burial ground," said Ruth Staten, who lives on Hobert Street at the south end of Ellendale Drive. "Though not Native Americans, these are our ancestors, and this would not be a good thing." David Bolen, who lives on South Keene Drive near Groveland, said he searched many places before settling on retirement in old southeast Medford six years ago. "What we have here is unique and the city ought to recognize what we have," said Bolen, who moved from Dallas. Bolen said although neighbors oppose the proposed north-south arterial that incorporates Groveland, they are willing to help look for a solution. "I would hope that the starting assumption is that we can satisfy all the needs of the community and also adhere to environmental guidelines," he said. "What we need to do is not to develop adversarial relationships, but come together and say what we want. "The reality is that we all want the same thing." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA